Pattern Recognition #99 - Slow Grow, Week 3

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

31 January 2019

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Hello everyone! Welcome back to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.net's longest running article series about the bric and brac of Magic: The Gathering, card design, game history and theory as well as being my own personal soap box for when I want to go on and on about things that interest me. Who am I? Well, I am berryjon, self professed Old Fogey and yes, I've been playing this game for longer than some of you have been alive. I've earned that title.

So, by the title, we are coming back to my Slow Grow Leage, this time for Week three! As I mentioned last time, I was now pretty much satisfied with my mana base, and went looking at options for creatures to help smooth out the early game. I had a few options here, but with the limit of five exchanges per week, I naturally did the smart thing and tossed Llanowar Elves, Thunderscape Familiar, and some other good stuff in.

Actually, NO. Past-me was a moron, and was looking to play the meta already. Because past-me was an idiot.

WEEK 2

OUT: Barren Moor, Worm Harvest, Moonlight Bargain, Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, Temple of the False God IN: Smuggler's Copter, Damping Sphere, Magus of the Moon, Risk Factor, Lotus Cobra

Behold! The results of my arrogance!

Barren Moor and Temple of the False God are out, and it's because they aren't what I was looking for in this deck. The Moor was another card that was better use as fodder for Lord Windgrace rather than seeing actual play, and would have been cut last week except I arn out of substitutions. Temple of the False God also didn't seem to be helping me any - not because I didn't see it at all in my nine games with the deck so far, but because adding when I have five or more lands seems a poor option when I want mana right away for cheaper spells, and not later.

Now, Worm Harvest always confused me as a choice in this deck. I mean, I've run this deck several times already, and the only time I even thought about casting this card was when I was desperate for defending creatures - and 1/1's weren't just going to cut it. Or rather, a single 1/1 Worm because I was really good at keeping lands out of my discard pile.

So no matter how I spliced it in my head, this card had to go. It was counter-synergistic to the whole thing, and worked better in a deck that didn't have large amounts of land recursion. And out it went. Never cast, and used as fuel for Lord Windgrace.

Gyrus, Waker of Corpses is one of the alternate Commanders for the deck, but I never liked him. He's another card that would never find a home in the deck I am building given that he's all about creatures in the graveyard and giving them a second chance at life. And I was having more problems than that with this deck, let me tell you.

You know what he does work well with? Kresh the Bloodbraided. Bring creatures back from the graveyard and kill them all over again to make Kresh bigger! Add in the multitude of ways to give him Trample, and Commander damage victories are within your grasp.

I honestly, seriously, considered putting in Kresh in this deck, but in the end, decided against it. He's a good Commander, make no mistake, but I was too tunnel-visioned on the Landfall-deck-o-doom I dreamed I could make to really commit to the idea. It just seemed like a huge shift to make, and in this league, you needed a plan going into it. You couldn't waffle about going this way and that trying to find something that worked.

So I might see you in a different deck, Gyrus, Waker of Corpses, but not in this one!

Lastly, Moonlight Bargain. An exchange rate of 2 life and is a little expensive for a card, but this has the added benefit of putting cards in the graveyard - where I didn't want them. I mean, sure, you could use this to fuel Dredge, which was one of its purposes back when printed in the original Ravnica, but here? It's a Gyrus and Worm feeder, and I just tossed those cards too. And yes, I know, having 40 life to start means paying up to 10 more palpable, but that's not the point. The point is, this card belongs in a deck better suited for it, and not in this one.

Now, as for what's coming in, let me start with the one card I knew I was going to put in from Week 0, and had to wait until now to pull it off. Lotus Cobra. I love this card, and in a Landfall deck like this, it can pay off over time, or when I build up for a massive Landfall burst. It's also pretty cheap, coming in at , which means that for these two reasons, this guy is going straight into the deck.

Damping Sphere was chosen for two reasons. First, I got a foil out of my prize pack from Dominaria from the first week, and second, it was because I know that certain decks could Combo off better than others, and that included the Saheeli, the Gifted deck that took a twenty minute turn on Week 1. So I tossed it in, not expecting it to win games, but rather to slow down the game to allow me to catch up with my slower, less optimized deck.

As for Risk Factor, it's just a beautiful card that does many things in this deck. It provides raw card draw, does damage to players, and comes back for more because it has Jump-start! Seriously, in Commander, Standard or other formats, this is a great card. I cast it ... once over the course of the rest of the League? Still don't feel it was a bad choice at all.

Smuggler's Copter was a choice to help me with my creature problems, and to provide additional car draw. I was worried that my major card draw engine in the deck was Lord Windgrace himself, and while I could fetch lands from the deck to help thin things out, I was looking for something more reliable to get me cards over time given that I wasn't in and I didn't feel like including tutors like Demonic Tutor or similar cards.

Because, as I think I've already established at this point, I am bad at this. ;)

And finally, Magus of the Moon. Because I couldn't find my actual Blood Moon, and hey, he's still a creature!

Can anyone else see the problem with this pick?

Yes? You can? Great! Can you go back in time and tell past-me that this was a stupid option and I should have just put Llanowar Elves in instead?

If you haven't figured this out, just wait for what happened this week in the games.

Speaking of, it's time for this week's game summary!

GAME 1

This game went to time, though I still came in last with 12 life total. I didn't see any of my new cards this game, but I could tell that the deck was still poorly performing. Mana screw was averted in part to the decisions made last week.

I do have a note which was basically me telling me to get rid of Gaze of the Gorgon because it hurts my tokens. you know, the Plants from Avenger of Zendikar and the dragons from Nesting Dragon. I did keep it in stock because I tended to have more expensive creatures, which meant that I could carefully measure the power of the Gaze in order to kill off weaker creatures while leaving mine alive but in practice, it was more hassle than it was worth.

GAME 2

Turn 1! Scute Mob

Turn 2! Swing with the Scute Mob as the Saskia the Unyielding player, and get the First Blood bonus point! Then cast Damping Sphere to slow down the other Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck, the one that wasn't being piloted by my co-worker who eventually won the League.

Turn 3! Cast Cultivate to get out of having just mana.

And then watch as the rest of the game collapses around me as I can no longer gain any sort of traction. I was being kept around by the other players because I was preventing the Meren deck from comboing off, including three turns in a row where their plans were stymied by the escalating mana costs. That was the sum total of the game, as nothing I managed to actively do seemed to matter, but I was kept around to keep the combo player down.

Came in second because everyone else was hitting bigger threats.

And who says Commander isn't a social game?

Man, I really should introduce you all to the Babylon 5 CCG. Now that was a social and diplomatic game like no other.

GAME 3

Three major things of note this game. First was that we only had three people at the table, so that meant that I could only come in third at the worst. Second was that one of the players at the table had also forgotten his League deck that day, and was playing Yisan, the Wanderer Bard as his commander. Which meant that we could score points on him, but he couldn't score on us! And I would be in SECOND at the worst!

Yeah, that game went about as well as could be expected. Which is to say I came in last.

And I don't have Genesis Wave either. Which sucks for me. sigh

Oh, and I said that I had three major things, right?

Well, it turns out that the third major thing was that I didn't get to cast Lord Windgrace this game, so I lost that point there. Because it was over that fast.

Seriously, facing down decks like that in a precon Slow Grow League is a horrible thing and a half. You start off with a cobbled together deck that Wizards thinks is worth printing, and only have a few changes to bring them up to within sight of where you want to be, and then some guy comes by with a deck that's been tuned?

Yeah, a sigh is the best I can muster.

I came out of this week with 7 points thanks to the high point of Game 2. I was still sitting pretty in last place.

I also knew what I needed. I needed Removal, and I needed it in a few ways. Preferably in the best traditions of Vorthos.

So tell me, what do you guys think of my choices? Now, while I am self-hamstrung by using only cards I own, what do you think might have been better or more interesting choices for me to make so far? Discuss in the comments section below!

Join me next week for the big 1! 0! 0! WOO HOO! Benchmark! Success! Massive proof of my complete and utter inability to give up in the face of adversity, tribulations, deadlines, Christmas and a poorly organized assortment of cards!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!